YULI YULIEVICH KLEVER (1850-1924) ET OSKAR ADOLFOVICH HOFFMANN (1851-1912)

Lot 158
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Estimation :
12000 - 18000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 80 600EUR
YULI YULIEVICH KLEVER (1850-1924) ET OSKAR ADOLFOVICH HOFFMANN (1851-1912)
YULI YULIEVICH KLEVER (1850-1924) AND OSKAR ADOLFOVICH HOFFMANN (1851-1912) The Kremlin Illuminated for the Coronation of Tsar Alexander III (1883) Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right in Cyrillic. Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right in Cyrillic. H 59 x W 107 cm - H 23 1/4 x W 42 1/8 in. PROVENANCE : - Hugo Fränkel (died 1940) and Olga Fränkel, née Schiller (died 1954) Collection. - Their son, Jury Fränkel (1899-1971). - Then by descent. RELATED WORKS - A more finished version of this composition was sold at Bukowskis (Helsinki) on 18/05/1997, lot no. 61 (oil on canvas, 49 x 85 cm). - The final and largest version from 1884 is in the V. A. Tropinin Museum in Moscow (oil on canvas, 135 x 178 cm). HISTORY On May 27, 1883, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov succeeded his father Tsar Alexander II to the Russian throne after his assassination in 1881, and was crowned Alexander III. This major event marked the spirits by the means deployed, including a lighting project of unprecedented scale developed by the engineer-lieutenant colonel Fabius. The Red Square, the Kremlin, the Great Stone Bridge and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior were entirely illuminated thanks to an impressive electrical system, becoming the first artificially lit buildings in the world. Not less than 3500 bulbs were necessary for the illumination of the Ivan the Great bell tower alone, giving a real sparkling spectacle that the best painters of the time were eager to capture. N. E. Makovsky and A. P. Bogoliubov delivered their version of the illuminations of 1883 but it is undoubtedly the painting jointly realized by Y. Klever and O. Hoffmann which remains the most famous vision. Indeed, according to sources, Tsar Alexander III commissioned the two painters directly, which explains the presence of the two signatures on each of the known versions, which present two different framings. Our painting and the one sold at Bukowskis in 1997 are dated 1883, while the version in the V. A. Tropinin Museum is dated 1884 and can be considered as the final version. This is a key to explaining why our painting does not have all the details of the final version, nor the same framing, and would probably have been the first sketch done on the spot before Alexander III's approval. Fränkel family Since 1848, the name of the Fränkel family has been linked to several generations of fur and tobacco merchants based mainly in Leipzig, in one of the oldest streets of the city called Le Brülh. Hugo Fränkel and his wife Olga, née Schiller, shared a passion for art and in particular for painting. He had his portrait painted by Philippe Maliavine in 1934 (portrait from the same collection sold on June 28, 2022, lot no. 23), and she was portrayed several times under the brush of Leonid Pasternak. They passed on to their son, Jury, born in 1899, the family business and the taste for collecting. He became a formidable businessman, especially in auctions dedicated to tobacco and furs organized by the Soyuzpushnina company. If Jury Fränkel marked his time for his business acumen, he was also the author of one of the first reference books on the fur and hide industry entitled "Jury Fränkel's Smokers' Handbook". The final edition was published in 1988, three years after his death in 1971 in Lagny sur Marne.
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